Like No One Before
by OzQueene
Summary: Georgie wants to give Kwame a little 'thank you' after the danger is over. Set during "Little Crop of Horrors".


**Notes:** I just watched _Little Crop of Horrors_ again, and damn it, Kwame and Georgie are too damn sweet to _not_ get their own fic. I actually wrote in to FFN and asked for a few characters to be added - including Georgie, Sam, Boris, Bambi and Trish.

Anyway, a little Kwame/Georgie fic. Because they're so, so cute.

(I've got a collection of little Kwame/Georgie one shots going - the next is _Something Beautiful.)_

* * *

The danger was over, and somehow, Kwame had Georgie all to himself.

He half-suspected Ma-Ti was behind this move. Or even Wheeler, who had spent a good deal of the mission exchanging smug, knowing looks with the others every time Kwame mentioned Georgie's name.

Georgie had asked Kwame to let her back into the geo-cruiser. Half of her belongings were still scattered over the seats, remnants from the hasty formula she'd been forced to make as they'd flown back from the rainforest.

"Do you need some help gathering this up?" he asked, sinking into the pilot's seat and motioning around at her things.

She didn't seem interested in collecting her belongings, however. She smiled and looked at him with her head slightly to one side, and it struck him again how utterly beautiful she was. He wondered how someone so pretty and young could be so clever and brilliant as well. Sometimes the gods were generous, and whoever had been in charge of Georgie had done an excellent job, in his opinion.

"Are you all right?" he asked, feeling anxious all of a sudden. "It was a dangerous day."

She laughed, but her eyes looked sad. "I'm fine. I just can't believe what my technology did, today."

"It was Blight that did it," he said gently. "Not you."

She tucked her hair behind her ear nervously, and he watched her hoop earring swing for a moment, catching the light.

"I thought it was over," she admitted. "I thought that I was going to be strangled."

He looked at her sorrowfully. "I am sorry you were in danger, today."

She shook her head and her smile was back again. "It wasn't your fault, Kwame."

He breathed a soft sigh at the sound of his name coming from that pretty mouth. "I would love to hear more about your research, sometime," he said. "Perhaps on a day where Blight has not tainted it with her nightmare schemes."

She laughed. "Deal."

He smiled at her and noticed she was observing him again, her head still at that slight tilt.

"What is it?" he asked nervously.

"You're kinda serious, aren't you?" she asked suddenly, still smiling at him.

Kwame swallowed. "Uh, I suppose so," he said, wondering if she was using such an observation to make fun of him or give him an indication that she wasn't interested in him at all.

She leaned against the seat opposite him, looking down at him with a thoughtful expression on her face. "You lead the others?" she asked. "Are you in charge?"

"No, not really," Kwame said, looking away and running his finger across the edge of the flight panel absent-mindedly. "I was never elected as leader. It just seemed to happen."

She nodded understandingly. "They all seem to like you. Respect you."

He could feel heat stealing to his face. "I suppose," he said. "Though sometimes I think they wish I was not so uptight."

She chuckled and the sound ran up his spine and squeezed gently at the base of his brain, causing him to sigh and gaze up at her with unabashed adoration.

"You're not uptight," she said. Her eyes sparkled at him. "You just know that there's a time for work and a time for play, right?"

"Right," he said, smiling at her as she summed things up so sweetly and neatly.

"Work and play can't always go together." She sat in the seat next to him and crossed her slim legs, looking at the flight panel with interest.

He gazed at her stockinged calves for a moment before gaining control again and shifting his attention away, his breath catching softly in his throat.

"So... When we went to the rainforest before, I was a little nervous," she admitted. "And on the way back I was busy trying to develop that formula. I didn't get a chance to see you fly this thing..."

He blinked. "You would like to learn how?"

She laughed again and shook her head. "No. But could I watch you fly it, for a little while?"

He wondered if he was imagining the tone of admiration in her voice. "Yes," he said. His voice was husky and he hastily cleared his throat, trying again. "Yes."

She smiled. "Take me somewhere?"

Kwame felt as though he was underwater. Everything had a strange echo for a moment and his movements felt too slow and sluggish. "Where would you like to go?"

"Anywhere," she declared quietly. "Away from work, for a little while. Let's have some fun."

He grinned and flicked switches and lit up panels, preparing the engine for take-off. He took his time, slowing clenching his right fist until his ring sent out a faint glow.

_Ma-Ti, I am taking the geo-cruiser for a little while. Georgie would like to study the mechanics of it in flight._

To his credit, Ma-Ti managed to sound convinced, even if Kwame's excuse sounded a little patchy. _Sure thing, Kwame. We'll see you later._

* * *

Georgie directed him to a small cluster of rolling mountains. The trees were sparse and few, but grasses and wild-flowers clung to the rock and the river below them wound through the valleys like a silver ribbon.

Kwame managed to find a ledge to land the geo-cruiser safely, and Georgie scrambled out.

"I want to show you something," she said, her voice quick and excited. "Coming?"

He didn't need to be asked twice. He followed her breathlessly, helping her over the larger rocks or pulling her gently up rough embankments so she didn't have to struggle alone. Not that he had really considered she _would_ struggle – she seemed to be doing just fine, even in shoes which could only be considered as impractical.

At the top of the mountain, he realised what she wanted to show him. The source of the river, which spread so far and so wide below them, started as a trickle from beneath the rocks where they stood.

Georgie smiled in delight and knelt carefully, cupping her hands to drink. When she stood, she looked up at him gratefully. "I love it here," she said, wiping water from her chin. "I've only been here once or twice. It usually takes half a day just to hike up this far."

"The terrain is very rough," Kwame agreed, bending to take a drink of his own.

"It's a beautiful view, though," she said softly. "Thank you for bringing me up here."

He stood, wiping his mouth on his arm after taking in sweet mouthfuls of water, and felt her arms come around his waist from behind.

"I'm not sure how I can ever thank you for what you did today," she said. "You saved the town and all of my research... Not to mention me. That vine nearly had us..."

"You do not have to thank me," he said hesitantly. He put his hands over hers, intending to move them apart so he could turn and face her. Somewhere along the way he lost his will and instead their fingers became laced and threaded together.

"It hardly seems fair that you don't get any reward for all the work you do," she said.

He turned and looked at her in surprise. "I am always rewarded," he said. "It is reward enough knowing that the people in that village are safe again and your research was saved."

She gave him a smile that made her eyes sparkle. His heart thudded painfully in his chest.

"The world should have more people like you, Kwame," she said. "What a wonderful place it would be."

He laughed, relaxing a little as he did so, and turned fully to face her, keeping hold of her hand. "There are plenty of people like me," he said. "I am just lucky enough to be an official Planeteer, rather than an unregistered one..."

She laughed and tilted her head up to look at him. "I'd still like to thank you," she said warmly, giving him that intoxicating smile again.

He wanted to protest again, and tell her it wasn't necessary, but something told him she knew it wasn't necessary. He gazed down at her wordlessly.

_She is so beautiful,_ he thought helplessly.

She smiled up at him as though she knew what he was thinking, before she rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth softly against his.

His eyes fluttered closed and his nerves jumped and tingled beneath his skin. Before he knew it, he had let go of her hand and had moved his palm hesitantly to her hip, holding her steady as she quivered on her toes to reach him. He stepped closer, deepening the kiss, and she moved her arms over his shoulders to hold him against her.

Kwame didn't have much experience with women. A few, certainly. But nothing beyond what could be described as heavy making out. He didn't ever feel the interest to pursue someone to the extent someone like Wheeler did, and on a few occasions he had wondered if something was wrong with him.

But now it appeared that the wait had been worth it. He didn't have many others to compare her to, but Kwame felt that Georgie would far exceed anyone anyway.

She opened her mouth slightly against him, gradually lowering herself back onto the full soles of her feet, using her arms around his shoulders to pull him to her. When he tentatively explored with his tongue, she made a soft noise that grabbed hold of his gut and tightened all his muscles, sending him giddy and tense all at the same time.

They broke for air a few seconds later, but she kept one hand gently at the back of his neck, guiding his forehead to rest against hers.

"That was the best thanks I have ever gotten," he breathed.

She giggled – girly and delighted and something he hadn't expected. He silently berated himself for expecting her to remain a Fully Serious Scientist all the time, and focused on how fluttered and pleasant her breath was against his skin.

She trailed her fingers across the nape of his neck and he closed his eyes.

"I saw the way you looked at me when you came into the lab," she admitted softly, pressing her mouth against his cheek and kissing the angle of his jaw.

"I did not mean to be so obvious," he whispered, feeling embarrassed and enchanted all at the same time.

"No, it was flattering," she said, tracing the curve of his ear with one trembling finger. "It was different. It was – sweet."

He grinned again. He was sure she could feel the heat in his face, indicating his self-consciousness, but she appeared too busy tracing his face with her fingertips to notice. Her thumb grazed across his lower lip.

"I think you like me because of what I'm capable of, and what I stand for, rather than what I look like," she explained softly.

He frowned, a little confused. "Of course," he said.

She gave a breathless little laugh at the expression on his face. "That's rare, Kwame," she whispered. "I like it."

He smiled and daringly bent to kiss her again.

For once, he was entirely unconcerned about when he'd have to return to work.


End file.
